City of Santa Clara Ranks Third in Nation in Solar Electric Survey for Average Amount of New Solar Power Per Customer

Silicon Valley Power and Santa Clara Customers Add 22 Megawatts of Solar to City’s Power Mix in 2013

Posted Date: 4/28/2014

Leslie Brown of Silicon Valley Power with Julia Hamm, President and CEO of SEPA

SANTA CLARA, Calif. – April 28, 2014 – A national survey of utilities by the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) has ranked Silicon Valley Power (SVP), the City of Santa Clara’s municipal utility, third in the nation for the amount of new solar power brought online for the city in 2013. By adding an average of 427 watts of solar generating power per customer, SVP ranked behind only a small Massachusetts municipal utility and San Diego Gas & Electric Co. in the survey, which included 287 utilities across the country.

The SEPA Top 10 Solar Watts-Per-Customer rankings calculate the number of customers each utility serves relative to its solar megawatts installed, giving small utilities a means to measure the relative intensity of their solar energy capacity on an equal footing with any other utility, regardless of size. SVP serves 52,600 electric customers in Santa Clara.
“This ranking shows that the City of Santa Clara and SVP customers are continuing to be leaders when it comes to solar power and commitment to carbon-free energy resources,” said SVP Director John Roukema. “With a combined effort by businesses, residents and our utility, our community began utilizing approximately 22 megawatts of new solar power in 2013.”

Twenty-two megawatts, the peak amount generated in sunlight by the new solar sources, roughly equals the power needed for a small city of about 10,000 people.

Among the photovoltaic projects adding to Santa Clara’s solar mix last year were a 400-kilowatt parking garage rooftop installation by SVP on Tasman Ave., and a 947-kilowatt system deployed by Intel at their corporate campus. In addition, SVP began receiving power from a 20-megawatt utility scale solar project in Kern County.

“Our city expects SVP to take advantage of renewable energy resources whenever we can,” said Roukema. “Overall, about 37 percent of SVP’s electricity is carbon-free power from solar, wind, landfill gas, geothermal and hydroelectric sources.

Utility

Annual Watts/Customer

Sterling Municipal Light Dept (MA)

831

San Diego Gas & Electric Company (CA)

461

Silicon Valley Power/City of Santa Clara (CA)

427

Arizona Public Service (AZ)

368

Hawaiian Electric Company (HI)

329

Pacific Gas & Electric Company (CA)

281

Hawaiian Electric Light Company (HI)

182

Maui Electric Company Ltd (HI)

178

Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative (HI)

167

Imperial Irrigation District (CA)

159

About Silicon Valley PowerSilicon Valley Power is the trademark adopted for use by the not-for-profit electric municipal utility of Santa Clara, CA serving residents and businesses for over 100 years. SVP provides power to more than 50,000 customers, including Applied Materials, Intel, Owens Corning, Agilent, Nvidia and Oracle, at rates 15 to 45 percent below rates in neighboring communities.